In the Pipeline: 2/4/13

A government owned stadium, powered by a heavily regulated electricity infrastructure, all pushed hurriedly towards unreliable, taxpayer funded green energy? What could go wrong?DOE (2/3/13) reports: “To make this the greenest Super Bowl, the New Orleans Host Committee has partnered with fans and the community to offset energy use across the major Super Bowl venues. The exterior of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome features more than 26,000 LED lights on 96 full-color graphic display panels, designed to wash the building in a spectrum of animated colors, patterns and images. The system draws only 10 kilowatts of electricity — equivalent to the amount of energy used by a small home — and the lights are expected to last for many years before needing replacement.”

I wonder if Secretary Kerry is going to set an example by selling his yacht. Or maybe one of his homes. Or one of his dozen or so cars. Politico (2/3/13) reports: Who will help President Barack Obama meet his ambitious promises to tackle climate change? Eco-celebrities and tree-climbing protesters need not apply. This is a job for wonks… The president’s top climate appointees and the outside advisers best positioned to shape his agenda are a team replete with heavy hitters — including green-minded business leaders, buttoned-down environmental lobbyists and bureaucrats who have spent years wrestling with the minutiae of regulations.

And yet, miraculously unencumbered by a sense of their own hypocrisy, Mr. Pallone and Mr. Lautenberg allowed themselves to be driven to work this morning. In cars. That run on gasoline.FuelFix(1/31/13) reports: “Northeast lawmakers are asking the Obama administration to abandon a plan to allow energy companies to conduct seismic research to identify hidden pockets of potential oil and gas along the Atlantic Coast… Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, both Democrats from New Jersey, sent letters to President Barack Obama highlighting their concerns with an Interior Department plan to allow a new generation of seismic studies along the East Coast, from Delaware to Florida. The last round of similar research was conducted in the region more than three decades ago.”

What? Is this guy trying to say that the President is dropping – without fanfare – his big idea for cars and fuels? Remember this when the bad guys circle back around for a low carbon fuel standard that will rely on . . . electric vehicles.The Truth About Cars (1/31/13) reports: “Under a new strategy announced today, the Department of Energy promised to support research into new battery technologies and manufacturing methods that would lower the cost of lightweight materials and improve vehicles’ fuel-efficiency, Reuters reports… But the DOE backpedales furiously from a goal set out in a 2011 State of the Union speech, where President Barack Obama announced what he called ‘Apollo projects of our times.’ One of them was the goal for the United States to be ‘the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.’”

Was it Warren Or Jimmy Who Sang, “Yes, I am a pirate two hundred years too late.” The answer probably can be found on the White House visitor list.Calgary Herald (2/2/13) reports: “When famed American investor Warren Buffett began to invest in rail car-making companies and railways a few years back, it should have been a sign to the rest of us to jump on board. Apparently, Buffet figured out that as it gets ever more difficult for pipelines to get approved and built, the light at the end of the oil bottleneck is a train — and that’s a good thing.”

Lead the way, Arnold.The Raw Story (1/31/13) reports: “If we want to inspire the world, it is time for us to forget about the old way of talking about climate change, where we crush people, where we overwhelm people with data,” the former California governor, bodybuilder and film star said… “There is a new way, a more sexy, a more hip way. Instead of using doom and gloom and telling people what they can’t do, we should make them part of our movement and tell them what they can do,” he said.